There can be little doubt the Phoenix Open has become one of the great spectacles in golf – not only on the PGA Tour but the game as a whole. The combination of a star-studded field and the risk-reward nature of TPC Scottsdale creates a tournament that delivers non-stop entertainment. When you throw in the rowdy and, let’s face it, often unruly and drunken nature of the massive galleries, it only adds to the significant allure of the event.
Pretty much all of its attraction is based around the 16th hole, a short par 3 surrounded entirely by grandstands, 20,000 punters and enormous quantities of alcohol.
But is this the route professional golf wants to go down and the image it wishes to portray? Or are we happy to accept this is just one isolated event of the year before we return to the weekly hush of the crowds?
On the Saturday of the tournament last month, Sam Ryder knocked in a short-iron at the 124-yarder and there was absolute bedlam as beer bottles and drinks very quickly filled the green. It was the first hole-in-one since Francesco Molinari in 2015.
This story is from the April 2022 edition of Golf Monthly.
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This story is from the April 2022 edition of Golf Monthly.
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